IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 67, 20 March 1926, Page 15

IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

PERSONALITIES OF THE DAY

TOKOMARU'S HARBOUB-

MASTER

With a sea atmosphere about him and the genial brceziness of the seaman, Captain S. J. Flummer, harbourmaster at Tokomaru Bay, passed through Wellington this week from tho Harbour Boards' Conference, held this year in Dunedin. Captain Plummer, a snapshot of whom appears with these notes, talks interestingly of the work of the conference he attended and of the treatment the delegates received at the hands of the exhibition authorities.

Of the many notable incidents in his life, perhaps the one that occurred when he was an officer of the ocean-going steamer Waimate gave Captain Plummer the greatest joy. It happened that the Rimutaka, in which steamer Mrs. Plummer and son were travelling to New Zealand, overtook in mid-ocean the Waimate. The captains of the two steamers, with whom Captain Plummer was popular, decided to give Captain and Mrs. Plummer a thrill by seeing each other out in the ocean and of waving a close {rreeting. They hove-to a little and brought their steamers almost

alongside each other, and after the young officer and his wife had exchanged greetings the Rimutaka, which vessel had steaming capabilities more powerful than the Waimate, sped over the horizon. Captain Plummer married Miss Whitelaw, of Auckland, and is a brother-in-law of Mr. J. D. Gray. UnderSecretary for External Affairs.